“Volunteers are those citizens who believe that something is out of kilter between individuals and society and believe they have an obligation and an opportunity to do something about it now. They do not believe they should sit back and let nature take its course. For whatever reason, volunteers do not feel powerless to effect change. They choose to get involved and to give the perceived problem their best shot within the constraints of their time, energy, knowledge and skills.” – Jane Mallory Park (from an article called “Vision Volunteering”)
Stacy Ashton (Executive Director of Community Volunteer Connections) and I were just having a lively phone conversation about this question:
What makes you a GREAT volunteer?
Together we came up with a recipe for success as a volunteer – but one characteristic that Stacy identified as essential absolutely leapt through the phone lines and smacked me in the head.
(Nicely. It smacked me in the nice way.)
Volunteering starts with optimism.
Not pollyanna-ish, blinkered, blind-to-reality optimism, but the kind of optimism that is grounded in reality and buoyed by…faith?
We’re not talking about FAITH as in religion – though studies show a connection – we’re talking about faith as a personal quality.
Faith that even though there are problems – which you keenly see – you can and will make a difference.
Faith that small efforts yield big results.
Faith that working together is a worthy process.
Faith that we can all be part of something bigger and more meaningful when we harness our small efforts together.
And, strolling hand-in-hand-in-hand with Faith, are Desire and Agency.
Faith is the belief that you can make a difference.
Desire is the passion to make a difference.
Agency is the capacity and the action of making a difference. Agency is doing it.
So faith, desire and agency were all rolled up in our conversation about how optimism is absolutely essential to successful, meaningful, rewarding volunteer experiences.
Optimism is a natural buoyancy: if you volunteer, you haven’t given up and decided that “Nothing makes a difference”.
Instead, if you’re optimistic, you see the difficulties and your response is to do something.
That’s a ‘call to volunteer’ and that’s where impassioned, rewarding volunteer starts.
What do you think? What calls you to volunteer?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I think I might call what you are talking about “realistic optimism”.
No, that’s not an oxymoron.
PS I try to limit my smacks to the head to nice ones.